Judging instead of Judged

I was recently asked by Tracey Femiano of the Medford Arts Commission to be the judge of a photography contest to select the images for the 2011 Medford Township calendar. It was an interesting experience to be the one doing the judging instead of the one being judged. When I received the images it was fascinating because laid before were were different styles and different levels of talent. Some of the photos were from people I know because I could identify their style.

For a judge to effectively judge art, they have to put aside any prejudices and feelings on how they would create something. Some kind of system needs to be established so they can rank or score a work as objectively as possible even though art is totally a subjective product. In this case I was asked to rank each image 0-5 but the guidelines to be used were to be of my own invention. I decided to create a 4 part judging system. The first was did it meet the assignment? In this case it was the Seasons in Medford Township. Eventually 13 of these images will end up on a calendar and need to tell that story. This was pretty easy but a little disappointing because there were some really nice images that just didn't tell that story. A well composed macro image of a bug on a flower may be great image of summer, but isn't unique to this small town in New Jersey.

The next part was also sort of easy. That is technical merit. Based on typical and accepted norms, was the photo well composed, in focus, etc. The third part started to get tricky because the I had to start being subjective. Looking at these well composed, well executed photographs, were they interesting? Were they something people would want to look at for a month? Was one more professionally produced than the other? I guess Tracey hoped that my having spent a lifetime looking at photographs would give me the experience to judge this.

The last part was definitely the hardest. It was here that I decided whether there were anything unique or artistically special about these images while keeping in mind that the ultimate goal of this photography was not an art show but a calendar. Still something that made an image have an artistic, and pleasing, edge would help judge in image beyond it's technical merits. This was, I hoped, what would give a lesser trained and equipped photographer the edge over one who had the expensive equipment or professional training. It was here that I was constantly trying to check my subjective opinion.

In the end every photograph left with a rating. It felt bad to rate something poorly even though it was justified. In spite of my opinion, the photographer who went to the trouble of submitting probably thought it was amazing. Ultimately, however, it is the rejection that makes you strive to improve your art. Praise feels great, but it also fosters complacency. At least that is true in my experience as an artist.

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I am happy to launch my new website. www.impressionisticlens.com. I will also be blogging here at least once a month sharing experiences and thoughts with you all. Stay tuned!